SIkander
Page 56
Urdu
Abaggy pant.It is tied around the waist with an ezarbandand worn such that the waist and upper portions are hidden underthe knee length qamees.
Sherwani
Urdu
Along coat.Usually it has a tight collar without a lapel, fastened over thethroat and several buttons down the top two thirds of its length.It is often ornate and embroidered and worn ceremoniously.
Shinwari
Pashto
Atribe of predominantly northeastern Afghanistan and northwesternPakistan.
Spin
Pashto
White.
SpinGhar
Pashto
WhiteMountains.
SSG
Abbr.
SpecialServices Group.An elite special operations commando force of the Pakistanmilitary, similar to the US Army’s Delta Force or BritishSAS.
SubhanAllah
Arabic
LiterallyGod is void of all other things.Thismeans Godis void of dependency or evil. It use is to glorify God's work oracts as when seeing something remarkable.
Suhur
Arabic
Themeal taken before dawn when it is still dark enough to eat duringthe month of Ramadhan.By instruction directly from the Holy Qur’an,it is supposed to be completed before it is possible to discern ablack thread from a white one in natural twilight.
Sunnah
Arabic
Anyact of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).The body of knowledge comprising the acts,sayingsandtacit approvals ofthe Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).The importance of cataloging this knowledge stems directly fromthe Holy Qur'an,which declares that the Prophet (pbuh)was the best example of right behavior.
Sunni
Arabic
Onewho attaches importance to guidance from the Holy Qur'anfor categoric instruction supplemented by the Sunnahtounderstand details of how to carry out the instructions of theFaith.
Surah;Sura
Arabic
Achapter or segment of the Holy Qur'an.Each surah has a name, which it typically takes from a word orayahin one of its verses.
Swara
Pashto
Theoffering in marriage of a girl of a family of a perpetrator ofwrongful death—such as in meerata—to the family of thevictim(s) in lieu of saz(blood money).
TablighiJamaat
Urdu
Aparty that proselytizes for religious reawakening of Muslimsthroughout the world. Itis a non-affiliated apolitical movement and is targeted largelytoward Muslims to bring them closer to their own faith. It isavowedly pacifist.
Tafsir
Arabic
Commentaryor exegesis of the Holy Qur'an.The act of interpreting but in non-mystical ways the meaning ofthe Holy Qur'an.
Takbeer
Arabic
Thecall to recognize, acknowledge, and pronounce the greatness ofGod.Almost always to spur a group of people to call out “AllahuAkbar”—Godis Great.
Takfir,Takfiri
Arabic
Topronounce Kufr on someone.To declare a person to be a Kafir.Orthodox Islamfrowns upon this practice carried out upon a fellow Muslim oncehe/she has professed the articles of faith.Takfir is one of the primary forms of justification of carryingout terrorist acts and such people also depart from orthodox Islamin the interpretation of suicide as a legitimate means of militaryaction. They believe that this does result in shahadah—somethingcontradicted by all orthodox Muslim scholars. “Takfiri,”is one who engages in takfir.
Talib
Arabic
Student.InPashto,the plural is Taliban.Thebody of “students” that became a political movement ofAfghanistan.Increasingly in western discourse, the labelhasalso come to be applied to singular individuals as in "He isa [member of the] Taliban.”
Tandoor
Urdu
Aclay oven.
Taraweeh
Arabic
Specialprayer during the evenings of Ramadhan.Itfocuses on recitations of the Holy Qur'anusually resulting in the entire Qur'anbeing recited over the roughly thirty nights of the month.
Tarr(Pashtunwali)
Pashto
Amutual agreement or contract usually governing acts or prohibitingthem by mutual arrangement.Violation of the agreement exposes the violator with no recourseif he/she suffers harm from the violated party.
Tashahud;Tashahhud
Arabic
Theseated phase of a Muslim prayer. Theposture is one of sitting on one’s legs with knees fullybent and hands resting on the upper thighs just above the knees.
Teega(Pashtunwali)
Pashto
Atruce,cease-fire, cessation of hostility.It does not requireresolving the underlying cause of a dispute. Breaking the truceinvites punitive measures from the jirga.
Tor(Pashtunwali)
Pashto
Genderpropriety.For example, prohibitionof men touching women or girls to whom they are not married or notmehram.
ToraBora
Pashto
BlackDust.The name given to a region of the SpinGharmountains containing a large complex of caves used by mujahideenand al-Qaeda at different times.
‘Ulema
Arabic
Pluralof ‘alim.It is alsooften used to refer to a consensus among scholarsover matters of Islamic knowledge and its interpretation.
Uzr
Pashto
Anapologetic or sorrowful regret.
Wa‘alaykum assalaam
Arabic
Andupon you be peace. Traditionalresponse for a Muslim to whoever is offering salaamwhen meeting or starting a reply to a letter/email. Often inwritten form abbreviated to “WAS.”
W'Allahi;Wallahi
Arabic
ByGod. By Allah.Often to emphasize commitment to a point, comment or position thatthe speaker is taking.
Wahabi;Wahhabi
Arabic
Onewho is guided by the teachings of 18th Century scholar Ibn AbdulWahhab.Hepreached a puritan ultra-conservative form of Islam.
Walimah
Arabic
Thepart of an Islamic wedding ceremony that takes place typically aday after the formal marriage and arranged by the groom's side ofthe family.Many scholars suggest that it should only be performed afterconsummation.
Wand-yaar
Pashto
Sister-in-law.
Wasalaam
Arabic
“…andpeace.”Areturn of a greeting often at the end of a letter, before thesignature line in a Muslim's correspondence.
Wudhu
Arabic
Thelesser ablution.Aritual purification through washing before any prayer.
YaAllah
Arabic
OhAllah.A direct appeal to Allah. Oh God.
YaAllah! Shukr!
Urdu
OhAllah! Thanks be to thee!Thank God!
Yaar
Urdu
Termof endearment to a fellow male friend.Used similarly to “dude,” in common American slang.
Yusufzai;Yousufzai
Pashto
Avery large tribe of
the Pashtuns, mostly residing in Pakistan’sNWFP.
Zai
Pashto
Thegeneric term for a tribe of the Pashtuns.
Zuhr
Arabic
Themid-day prayer.
Zwey
Pashto
Aterm of endearment to mean "Son," in Pashto.
Acknowledgments
Like the story itself, the writing of SIKANDER has been its own journey, and like all other journeys, both the outward and the inward aspects are often memorable. This has been no different and I would like to thank and acknowledge the many traveling companions without whom SIKANDER was going to remain an interesting idea languishing and gathering cobwebs in my mind.
My opening acknowledgments have to be directed to my patient wife Rehana, who tolerated my frenzied life for the first three months of 2010, as I had to get this thing out of me. To her, my love and thanks.
Next I have to acknowledge my editors, Pam Guerrieri (for taking me through to the third edition) and Janie Cavolina (for this fourth edition), each of who brought to the task their unique blend of expertise and polish. I am indebted to several other readers both professional and otherwise who took the time to pick up the novel and give me a critical sense of the storyline and readability, helping me with their valuable feedback. Special thanks must go to Drs. Bob and Judith Wright, to Marcella and Gary DiChiara and their several book club friends, to Jafer and Arshia Hasnain, to Bill Harrelson, and Larry Dunn. In reviewing the Glossary from the viewpoint of its many Islamic themes, my thanks to Hamid Sibghatullah who provided many insights and corrections to the often subtle but important points that are made in the Glossary.
References
References have been very important in getting as much of the contextual detail to be as authentic as I could make it. The following have been some of the more prominent references from which I have drawn, but please note, to all polemicists, the references are used for the purposes of contextualizing a fictional narrative and it is not my objective to opine on the accuracy of their content or otherwise. They have helped create the backdrop for a human story, not a political one, and one would be ill-advised to treat this book as a source of reference material on history.
Afghan Guerrilla Warfare in the words of the Mujahideen Fighters by Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester W. Grau—MPI Publishing Company, 2001
Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling—MacMillan Press - 1894
Introduction to Man Portable Air Defense Weapon System—Sub course No. AD 0575, Edition A—US Army Air Defense Artillery School, Fort Bliss, Texas:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2900214/AD0575A-INTRODUCTION-TO-MANPORTABLE-AIR-DEFENSE-WEAPON-SYSTEM
A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting [revised] by Prof. Marc Herold—Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire.
Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)—Headquarters Joint Detention Operations Group (JDOG), Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Effective 28 March 2003
The Stinger Missile and US Intervention in Afghanistan by Alan J Kuperman—Article published in the Political Science Quarterly, Volume 114 Number 2, 1999
Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba—Report by Center for Constitutional Rights, July 2006.
http://www.ccrjustic.org
No Hearing Hearings: CSRT: The Modern Habeas Corpus? An Analysis of the Government's Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantanamo (11/17/2006)—Mark Denbeaux et al.
(http://law.shu.edu/publications/guantanamoReports/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf)
Second Report on the Guantanamo Detainees: Inter- and Intra-Departmental Disagreements About Who Is Our Enemy (3/20/2006)—Mark Denbeaux et. al.
(http://law.shu.edu/publications/guantanamoReports/second_report_guantanamo_detainees_3_20_final.pdf)
Report on Guantanamo Detainees: A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data (2/8/2006)—Mark Denbeaux et. al.
(http://law.shu.edu/publications/guantanamoReports/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf)
Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward—Simon & Schuster, 2004
Worse than Watergate by John Dean—Little, Brown and Company, 2004
About the Author
Born in Pakistan in 1952 of refugee parents from India, M. Salahuddin Khan is a management consultant. From 1998 to 2007, he was the Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer, and Senior VP of Global Marketing and Strategy for NAVTEQ Corp. From 2006 to 2008, he was publisher of ISLAMICA Magazine.
In 2008, Khan was co-executive producer of a 12-minute short movie called The Boundary, starring Alex Siddig (Syriana, Kingdom of Heaven). The movie was about civil liberties at a U.S. border crossing in a post-9/11 world. Khan has made several radio and TV appearances, including NBC, CTV, WBZ Boston, Mancow in the Morning, and others. He is also the Thursday host of Radio Islam at WCEV 1450 AM, Chicago and has had featured op-ed pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Huffington Post.
In less than a year, Sikander has been the Grand Prize winner of the 2011 Los Angeles Book Festival and the 2011 Paris Book Festival, winner in the fiction category at the 2011 Beach and 2011 Hollywood Book Festivals, and was the runner-up in the same category for the 2011 New York Book Festival. Sikander was also named the winner in the multi-cultural fiction category at the 2011 National Indie Excellence Book Awards. It was also nominated for the Dayton Literay Peace Prize for 2011. Khan was also awarded the CAIR Chicago Book Award for 2012.
He is a designer, engineer, artist, writer, inventor (he has several US patents), and worldwide traveler.
www.sikanderbook.com